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Celticus
Celticus (/'keltikus/; active: 2012 – ), is a currently active role-player within the Steam Roleplaying Community and current owner of the Senātus Populusque Rōmānus (:Roman:) role-play group. He is the former owner and head of the defunct R.P. organization, Invictus, and one of the current heads of the movement to restore and expand the Steam R.P. Community based in the group, Assembly of Nations. He previously served as a minor general within the group, The Kingdom of Ios, from October, 2012 to November, 2012. Upon joining the role-play group, S.P.Q.R., he served as a Dux of Rome under Imperator Maximus Decimus Meridius from January, 2013 to February, 2013. Following a coup and brief absence, he served as a Consul of Rome, within the same group, under Imperator Tacitus Ryan Aurelius from April, 2013 until August, 2013. Following his removal from S.P.Q.R., Celticus assisted the R.Per, Wilhelm, in creating the R.P. persona of "RickMyDick" and enacted a plan of mass destruction of large swaths of the Steam R.P. Community from September 7th, 2013 to May 6th, 2014. Around the end of the R.M.D. era, Celticus founded the R.P. hub of Invictus and led the group from the Spring of 2014 until Fall, 2014. He left the community for several months, only to return in Spring of 2015 to revive S.P.Q.R. He oversaw a second revival of S.P.Q.R. in Fall of 2015 and remained as an observer of R.P. until returning to aid in the foundation of Assembly of Nations (A.o.N) and a third revival of S.P.Q.R. in Fall of 2017. He is one of the more controversial personalities within Steam R.P. and has played a significant role in shaping much of its recent history. Early Career. Celticus joined the Steam Role-Play Community in October of 2012. He was recruited into the community by the R.Per, Ryan (Pavel) following several battles in the video game, Rome: Total War. The recruitment was part of an effort to bring generals within the role-play group, The Kingdom of Ios. This low fantasy R.P., similar in setting to the book series and popular t.v show, Game of Thrones, provided Celticus with an initial look into the workings of the community. Initially untrained and lacking the skills needed to fight R.Per's battles, Ryan would train Celticus for weeks within Total War, educating him on battlefield tactics and the ideas of leadership. In early-November, Celticus would attempt a small and reckless coup against King Smetana of Arnor, resulting in meeting his mentor, Ryan Pavel, the Duke of Odrav, on the field of battle. Celticus, upon seeing the man he would face, laid down his arms and surrendered. He would be expelled from the army and from the Kingdom. Despite Smetana's urging against it, Ryan maintained good relations with Celticus and the two spoke often for several months following the Ios incident. Senatus Populusque Romanus. Dux of Rome and the February Revolution. Celticus re-entered the realm of Steam Role-Play in late-January of 2013 by joining the Classical Roman R.P. group, Senatus Populusque Romanus (:Roman:). Ryan recommended Celticus join the group following the group's monarch, Imperator Maximus Decimus Meridius, plea for strong generals to advance Rome's glory in war. Celticus would train alongside Imperator Maximus for several weeks until the group joined the Council of Nations' official Ancient R.P. Tier One. Maximus appointed Celticus as a Dux of Rome, one of the several military leaders allowed to wage campaigns on their own. S.P.Q.R. declared war on the forces of the Reborn Empire of the Greeks, Macedonians, and Pontians under King Agean Megas, forcing Celticus to meet their armies on the battlefield several times. He defeated the Greek forces and returned to Rome. Celticus returned to Rome expecting a triumph, but the honor had been given to the Imperator's brother, Julius Septimus Meridius, just before his return. This snubbing of honor caused Celticus to speak to Maximus about the issue, but his petition for a triumph was dismissed. Celticus then took his legion and began to march out of Roman territory, intent on beginning a new campaign in the north. Imperator Maximus considered the action treasonous and demanded Celticus return to Rome. Tired of the Imperator's disrespect, Celticus marched his army toward Rome in order to depose the Imperator. Seeing opportunity for advancement, the Consuls, Gnaeus and Augustus Antonius plotted a coup to coincide with Celticus' arrival in the city. Imperator Maximus ordered his brother, Julius Septimus, to intercept Celticus on the fields outside of the city. The Battle of Rome was fought on February 24th, 2013, and resulted in a victory for Celticus, the destruction of the legion under Julius Septimus, and Imperator Maximus fleeing Rome. Owner, Marcus Antonius, returned to S.P.Q.R. that evening, deposed Maximus, and informed Celticus that Rome was under his control. Celticus turned down the title of Imperator and instead, chose to reform the government into a Republic with Augustus Antonius. Following the formation of the February Republic, Celticus left S.P.Q.R. and Steam R.P. Consul of Rome and the 2nd S.P.Q.R. Hegemony. The Strengthening of the Senate and Mustering of the Legions. Celticus returned a second time to the R.P. Community following another request from Ryan Pavel. The February Republic of Rome had lasted only a week until Julius Septimus Meridius returned and returned S.P.Q.R to its Imperial state. After the month of March had provided no quality R.P., Marcus Antonius deposed Julius Septimus and appointed Tacitus Ryan Aurelius as the next Imperator. Celticus returned as an appointed Consul of Rome on April 1st, 2013 after Ryan requested he aid him in strengthening the group. Celticus adapted to the more political aspects of R.P. and laid the foundation for a strong Senate. A couple weeks into his tenure, Celticus became aquainted with a new member to S.P.Q.R. named Lucius Vorenus (Wilhelm) and the two quickly formed a partnership in order to gain further control over the Senate. Lucius Vorenus would assist Celticus in maintaining power by rigging elections, manipulating Senate members, and creating situations that bolstered Celticus' position within the group. While Lucius was busy, Celticus focused on training the Legatii of S.P.Q.R. in Total War and developed a standing Roman army that was far superior to the armies of the Reborn Empire and newly active Grand Republic of Carthage. S.P.Q.R. gained the reputation of a formidable foe within the Ancient R.P. community. Ventures outside of S.P.Q.R. and the May Conference. During the first week of May, Celticus stepped outside his friendly territory of Rome and interacted with R.Pers and groups in the broader community. Celticus and Luicus Vorenus hosted what they called the "May Conference" in order for R.P. to gain increased unity and interaction among groups. The conference included around fifty R.Pers in total with many entering voice chat and dozens typing in a single group chat. The conferences ultimate mission was to untie the rival Roman groups of TLR and T.R.E. with S.P.Q.R. and for some form of interaction to occur within the realm of Victorian Role-Play. Deliberations occurred for several days, but ultimately the conference failed to unite the Roman R.P. groups. The effort was not entirely fruitless. Celticus and Vorenus used the opportunity to meet many R.Pers outside of S.P.Q.R. and expand their information gathering network into the realms of Victorian R.P. Constitutions, Elections, and Fraud. The remainder of the month of May and early-June saw Celticus and Vorenus tighten their grip further in S.P.Q.R. and Ancient R.P. While Celticus gained public support, Vorenus worked behind the scenes to modify government powers, slowly shifting the power away from the Imperator and into the hands of the Consuls and Praetors. Celticus remained in office as Consul by means of vote bribery and the faulty election system that favored mass Steam user votes. So long as Celticus remained as Consul, Vorenus could modify S.P.Q.R. as he saw fit. Senate members and outsiders looking into S.P.Q.R. noticed the power Celticus and Vorenus wielded, but Imperator Aurelius was happy with S.P.Q.R.'s increased power over the other R.P. groups and believed the two were working in Rome's best interest. The Civil Wars and the End of the Aurelius Imperatorship. By June's end, S.P.Q.R. had entered a time of unrest. Discontent with Celticus Consulship, several of the Legatii of Rome planned a coup in order to depose the current Senate, but keep Imperator Aurelius in power. These generals, Gaius Marius, Castus, and Cicero, considered themselves the protectors of the Imperator and knew the group was transitioning into a Dictatorial regime under the Consuls. Around June 17th, 2013, the Legatii declared open rebellion and challenged Celticus and his forces to battle. That night, the Consular forces wiped out every rebellious legion, leading to Cicero's end by self-immolation and Castus & Marius defeat and expulsion from the group. In July 2013, Celticus had assumed near complete dominance over Ancient R.P. S.P.Q.R.'s loyal generals were superior to their Greek and Carthaginian counterparts and political power as at its height. For a brief time, Celticus owned the Greek nations of Reborn of the Greeks and Macedonians following a transfer of ownership from Agean. Celticus assumed the name Keltikos, King of the Greeks, for this time. The groups were returned only a few days later following a plea from Agean. Busy with S.P.Q.R., Celticus obliged and the peaceful transfer or ownership was enacted. At the dawn of August 2013, Lucius Vorenus overthrew Imperator Tacitus Ryan Aurelius and assumed the role of Imperator under the false name and account, Imperatrix Catherine Aurelius. Celticus chose not to interfere and the loyalist forces were defeated by the Catherine armies. Angered by the treachery, the new co-consul, Idius Africanus (Idi Amin), declated open rebellion, and attacked. Consul Celticus and Consul Africanus met on the fields near the Italian coast arounf August 14th, 2013. The day was won by Celticus, but Consul Africanus refused to accept defeat and held the group hostage as admin, forbidding any new RP and deleting new posts. Celticus founded the group, Senātus Populusque Rōmānus (:Roman:), as backup page for the main S.P.Q.R. and transferred R.P. to its halls for the week. Marcus Antonius returned to Steam on August 20th, 2013, analyzed the situation, and made the decision to remove Imperator Vorenus, Celticus, and Idi Amin from the R.P. The users were kicked out of S.P.Q.R. and Antonius re assumed his title as Imperator. The R.M.D. Operation Stage 1: The Assault on Ancient Role-Play. Prelude to Chaos. In early-September 2013, Celticus had plans to remain as he was and simply accept his exile. He and Lucius Vorenus were still in contact and discussed the situation on and off for several weeks. One evening, Lucius Vorenus approached Celticus and discussed an idea that would come to change the landscape of R.P. Vorenus, eager for revenge against Marcus Antonius and S.P.Q.R., proposed the idea to end R.P. activity in S.P.Q.R. by disrupting the groups function, deleting its history, and spamming the group so that it would lose members. Celticus, open to the idea of revenge due to the nature of his removal, accepted the idea and agreed to assist with the operation. Vorenus decided to create the account and persona called "RickMyDick" in order to attack with little indication at who the culprits were. The 1st Assault on S.P.Q.R. On September 7th, 2013, RickMyDick persuaded an admin within S.P.Q.R. to give him the position of moderator under a Roman sounding name and waited for the administration to log off. Once the group was quiet, RickMyDick assumed his persona of the nude, muscular, Dick Clark image and title, and began to quietly delete as much history as possible from the groups pages. Once this was done, R.M.D. began to moderate other users (an oversight in the groups permissions) until hundreds of random users were mods. The final act was spamming obscenities and drivel to drive as many members from the group as possible and encourage others to take part. Several users assisted R.M.D.'s spam for at least an hour. Marcus Antonius was alerted by his allies, promptly logged on, and kicked R.M.D., but the damage had been done. S.P.Q.R. lost several hundred members, its history was gone, and R.P. activity all but ceased. This pattern would be repeated many times for the next several months. Operations Management and the search for R.M.D. Celticus' role in the R.M.D. operation was close to an operations manager rather than a spammer. He never participated in the main assault on groups, that privilege was reserved for Vorenus. Celticus used his collection of information on various users to optimized the assaults and set a schedule so that the impact on the community was maximized. From late-Fall, 2013 to Spring, 2014, R.M.D. assaulted numerous groups, forcing many to leave the community due to a lack of active groups and causing others to lock down their R.P.'s out of fear of attack. The operation shifted out of Celticus' control around January of 2014. Vorenus and his new ally, Ryan Pavel, shifted the assults focus on Victorian R.P. after destroying The Roman Empire (T.R.E.) under Gaius, and ending activity in Rommel's T.R.E. 10k. Ancient R.P. was crippled as Victorian R.P. fended off multiple attacks. Stage 2: Invictus, The Victorian Campaign, The United Romans, and the death of S.P.Q.R. The Foundation of Invictus. When control and interest in the ongoing war against R.P. waned, Celticus turned his sights on destroying the ideas that had allowed R.P. to establish itself. He founded the Steam Role-Play Community hub of Invictus in order to congregate the majority of R.Pers in a single location. The first objective of the group was to change R.P. attitudes to favor isolated internal R.P, over inter-group communication. The second objective was to log the existing R.P. groups so that R.M.D. could continue the campaign of destruction. Invictus succeeded in gathering many R.Pers into its member list and the group served as a vital tool in turning the community into isolated pockets of activity. The Victorian Campaign. By Spring 2014, Celticus had little direct involvement with R.M.D. operation. He provided the public information gathered by Invictus as a means to assist the operation but no longer directed its attacks. R.M.D. and his associates would strike several European groups, tiers, United States groups, and force many owners to freeze their R.P. activities. The impact overall was less than the crippling strikes against Ancient R.P., but fear spread throughout the community and even beyond into some Steam discussions. While none of the attacks actually involved hacking, the reputation of R.M.D. as a prolific hacker attracted the attention of periphery R.P. members and the first investigations into the identity of the culprits began. The United Roman Empire. Late-January 2014 saw the emergence of problem for the R.M.D. operation. While the rest of Ancient R.P. had died out, the refugees from S.P.Q.R., T.R.E., and T.R.E. 10k banded together under a new Roman leader named Augustus Caesar within the new group, The United Roman Empire. Celticus and R.M.D. initially viewed it with contempt, however, the group did bring in a new wave of Roman RPers through the recent release of Total War: Rome II. R.M.D. would destroy the group twice, but the third group remained stubborn and active well into the age of Invictus. During this period, Celticus and Augustus Caesar would transition from rivals into decent friends. The Death of S.P.Q.R. Antiqua. In April of 2014, Celticus revived Roman R.P. under S.P.Q.R. Nova as a rival group to U.R.E. Activity grew quickly and the group saw many active R.Pers join its ranks. Near the middle of the month, Marcus Antonius gave the original S.P.Q.R. to his friend and ally, Augustus Antonius (Anon) with the hope that he would revive it. Anon quickly handed the group over to Celticus much to Marcus dismay. Activity was transferred from S.P.Q.R. Nova to S.P.Q.R. Antiqua, for the remainder of April and through the first week of May. On May 5th, 2014, Lucius Vorenus proposed the complete destruction of S.P.Q.R., despite it being in Celticus' hands. Celticus agreed to the idea and S.P.Q.R. was administratively disabled following a spam attack on May 6th, 2014. The Untied Roman Empire remained as the sole member of Ancient R.P. well into Summer. Stage 3: Quiet returns to Steam R.P. as the Investigations, and Admissions. The Hunt for R.M.D. The destruction of S.P.Q.R. was the last major attack in the R.M.D. operation. Most of R.P. had been frozen with fear or isolated into small groups. Nation R.P. resorted to internal R.P. with the aid of Invictus and the fear of more attacks. Gaius of T.R.E. began to found commissions tasked with finding R.M.D.'s identity, but the efforts bore no fruit. Summer 2014 came and went with a small revival of Ancient R.P. under the Ancient Role Play Center lead by Augustus and Agean, but died after several weeks. In order to guide the investigation in the wrong direction, Celticus founded his own commission to hunt for R.M.D. He led the members in circles for months while R.P. continued to hemorrhage members and activity. The Reveal, Apologies, R.M.D. expulsion, and the Disbanding of Invictus. In October 2014, guilt drove Celticus to reveal all. He hosted a group chat and explained the operation to those who attended, announced all assistants, and the identity of R.M.D. The event came after a dispute between Celticus and Vorenus had left them distant with animosity. Lucius Vorenus was expelled from the groups he was a member of and he disappeared from the community at large. Celticus left the community following his announcement and handed Invictus over to Augustus Caesar. Caesar would use Invictus as a means for good well into 2015. Augustus returned Invictus to Celticus in May of 2015. Having done its job, Celticus disbanded the group and deleted it from Steam. The result was a severing of communication between R.Pers and the isolation of the community. The idea of a "Steam R.P. Community" by this point was in name only, as R.P.s kept to themselves and continued to die off. The trend of brief revivals with general decline would haunt R.P. well into the year of 2017. The Quiet Months and Observation. Brief Revivals of S.P.Q.R. Nova and the Long Absence 2nd Revival of S.P.Q.R. Nova. In April of 2015, Celticus briefly re-opened S.P.Q.R. Nova for R.P. The government was formed into an Imperatorship under Lucius Vorenus (who had returned just prior). Activity was weak to moderate until June 2015 when a second dispute between Vorenus and Celticus led to Vorenus expulsion and the closing of the group. 3rd Revival of S.P.Q.R. Nova. In October of 2015, Celticus opened S.P.Q.R. a third time for role-play. The government structure remained the same under the Imperator Jovian Naevius. Imperator Jovian would would reign for a week until a botched invasion of Britannia left him and three legions dead in the cold winter. The next Imperator was Flavius Slupo (Rapid), having assumed control as the lead Legate of Rome and lack of an heir for Jovian. Flavius Slupo would lead S.P.Q.R. with waning activity leading the group to shut down in December of 2015. Time away from the Community. Celticus stepped away from the community following S.P.Q.R.'s inactivity. He remained an observer from afar and uninterested in its events from January 2016 until October of 2017. During this period, he reflected on his actions and past and concluded that his career had been too ripe with negative aspects and regrettable decisions. The community as a whole weakened month by month and was nearing a complete death state, save for isolated tiers. Unable to help in a meaningful way, Celticus continued to observe R.P.'s decline. Return to Steam R.P. and the Assembly of Nations Project. The Assembly of Nations. Prelude. Celticus began to interact with R.Pers once again in the Summer of 2017. Only discussing the status with current members, he saw the eagerness to revive the community growing larger. He joined a brief group project for revival under the jurisdiction of the group, The Board of Directors, led by Louis Mountbatten. Celticus was elected Chairmen but did little due to business out of Steam. The group fell silent and hope waned. Celticus continued to watch R.P. attempts at revivals fail on and off for a couple months. In October of 2017, several R.Pers proposed another attempt to Sigismund. Sigismund mentioned the idea to Celticus on October 25th, 2017, triggering the idea for a new community hub with noble intentions as opposed to nefarious ones. The Foundation of the Assembly. Celticus gathered Sigismund, Jakeman Noble Citizen of London, and a returned Lucius Vorenus (Wilhelm) on the night of October 25th, in order to plan the creation of the Assembly of Nations. It was determined that Jakeman should own the group as he had a reputation of being an impartial observer of R.P. events for years. Celticus and Sigismund would attempt to gather R.Pers old and new into the group while Wilhelm attempted to revive British R.P. Celticus petitioned Louis Mountbatten, who had recently revived British Empire, to join the group and aid in its growth. Mountbatten would found his own group, Nations of The World, in order to achieve the same goal. The Assembly of Nations believed R.P. should grow from natural communication and advertisement while the Nations of the World believed in a top down, organized approach to its rebirth. The two groups would attempt to restore R.P. on their own and continue to do so until the present day.